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LE STUDIUM THURSDAYS

  • Santé-Sciences-Technologie,
  • Pharmacie,
  • Recherche,
Date(s)

le 4 octobre 2018

16h00
Lieu(x)
University Library of Les Tanneurs
3 rue des Tanneurs
37000 Tours
 

Interdisciplinary monthly seminar on brain physiology and pathophysiology

Recombinant Intrabodies as Potential Therapeutics for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Dr. Denis Reis de Assis

University of Rio Grande do Sul, BraIns, Brazil; iBrain, UMR 1253, Inserm, University of Tours

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressive motor neuron disease, invariably fatal and lacking effective treatments. Aggregates of hyper-phosphorylated TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) are present in the cytosol of affected motor neurons of almost all ALS patients and is considered as a hallmark of the disease. Several cellular and in vivo models of TDP-43 proteinopathy have shown a correlation between the presence of cytosolic TDP-43 aggregates and alterations in calcium homeostasis, bioenergetics, and neural transmission. The use of cellular models of TDP-43 proteinopathy allows searching for alterations in oxygen consumption, calcium signaling, and electrophysiological parameters. Besides, identifying compounds capable of rescuing cellular pathological markers of TDP-43 pathology will contribute for the development of novel drugs to treat ALS. In this sense, it is hypothesized that the removal of the cytoplasmic TDP-43 protein from motor neurons of ALS patients by anti-TDP-43 intrabodies could provide a revolutionary treatment for this untreatable fatal disease.


Gray matter, white matter, and the ongoing history of the distribution of mental functions

Prof. Igor Lima Maldonado

Federal University of Bahia, Laboratory of Anatomy and Dissection - Department of Biomorphology, - Brazil; iBrain, UMR 1253, Inserm, University of Tours

As soon as the human kind identified the encephalon as the seat of cognition, scientists try to understand how it works. Although the first signs of a neurological science date back to ancient times, the last fifty years have been particularly important, given the debates about the location of mental functions and the advances that have contributed to making cognitive neuroscience the discipline that we know today. The cerebral white matter gradually gained importance after the acknowledgment of the fasciculi that interconnect the cortical areas within the brain. Meticulous observations of disconnection syndromes have associated clinical manifestations with the respective anatomical elements, but such associations have not always seemed obvious because these bundles are not clearly identifiable. This talk focuses on important methodological advances that have been responsible for the recent explosion in the amount of available data. Among the most important techniques are fiber dissection and diffusion imaging in humans. The knowledge of the form and function of fiber pathways supports the modeling of cognitive networks, the development of neurosurgical approaches and the interpretation of neuroimaging. We are living in an interesting moment in the history of neurosciences and humanity concept of the distribution of mental faculties. Neuroscientists, physicians, and the general public have moved from a localizationist cortical-centered model, which predominated in the last century, to a new connectivist one, in which our faculties are considered as the result of organized and interrelated neuronal circuits.

Contact :
Prof. Catherine Belzung :